Portable applications
Fuel Cell Systems. Fluvial, marine, aerospace and portable applications

Thanks to their modularity, fuel cells can be produced over a very wide range of power ratings, depending on the application. The power of a fuel cell depends on the size of the repetitive cell (10^–6 m² up to 1 m²), the number of cells in a stack (from 1 to several hundred) and the number of stacks used, leading to power ratings ranging from a few tens of milliwatts to a few tens of megawatts.

Low-power PACs (< 100 W) can therefore be used in a variety of portable applications such as personal microcomputers, camcorders, stand-alone power sources for camping or an infantryman's communication radio. Higher-power generators (< 1 kW) can be used to power handling carts, mobile telecoms sites or event sites (e.g. film shoots), replacing highly polluting diesel generators.

The advantage of fuel cells over batteries in these applications is that they...